The Fourth Annual Tennessee National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) State Championships will be held Thursday, Feb. 25 at the Tennessee Miller Coliseum.
The NASP State Championships has a new setting this year after being held at Tennessee Tech each of the past two years. The tournament has seen an increase of almost 500 students in two years with more than 800 students registered for this year’s event.
Sponsored by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), many of the Volunteer State’s best student archers will again participate in this year’s event. The NASP began in Tennessee in 2004 and has seen tremendous growth since its inception.
There will be three divisions. Schools will compete in the elementary, middle school and high school divisions. Awards will be presented to the top team and individual finishers in each division.
Competition will be held in six flights with the first flight to begin at 8:30 a.m. and continuing until the final flight starts at 4:30 p.m. The awards ceremony is expected to begin at 6 p.m. The public is welcome and invited to attend. There is no admission charge.
All three defending team champions will be present to defend their respective titles. Van Buren County High School, in addition to winning the high school division, was honored for posting the best overall team score in 2009. Bledsoe County won the middle school division category and Meigs County was first in the elementary school division.
Tennessee began NASP in late 2004 with 12 pilot schools participating in the program. The number of schools has gone to more than 130 that now participate in the program. NASP is a two-week curriculum taught during school that teaches International style target archery.
Each student will shoot 30 arrows, 15 from 10 meters and 15 from 15 meters with a maximum score of 300. The top team and individual in each division automatically receive a bid to compete in the National NASP Tournament to be held in May in Louisville, Ky.
If a school or teacher is interested in starting a NASP program, please contact Don Crawford, Assistant Chief of Information and Education at Don.Crawford@tn.gov or (615) 781-6542 or Matt Clarey, Regional Training Coordinator in TWRA Region III at Matt.Clarey@tn.gov or 1-800-262-6704 or (931) 484-9571.